73 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



GREEN JAY (Xanthoura luxuosa glauces- 

 cens) 



In a region of bushy thickets in south Texas 

 a bird suddenly appeared with a twig held in its 

 beak and gazed intently at me. Its size, form and 

 every movement revealed the characteristics of a 

 jay and its colors showed that it was the little- 

 known green jay of the lower Rio Grande Valley. 

 When it flew, I followed, for not many bird 

 students had seen the nest of this species and I 

 was interested in learning what disposition the 

 bird would make of that twig. 



It led me for more than half a mile, alighting 

 frequently and appearing to make no special 

 effort to iceep out of sight, although I am sure it 

 was aware of my movements. At length it flew 

 into a bushy tree, still carrying the twig. When 

 I came close it departed, but without the twig. 

 In the tree I discovered a nest. Cutting thorns 

 and limbs, and pushing upward among innumer- 

 able small branches, I reached it and found it to 

 be an old one with no signs of any repairs being 

 in progress. I have often wondered if that jay 

 did not deliberately deceive and outwit me. 



Very little has been written about its food or 

 general habits, but it is known to occur within the 

 limits of the United States only in the valley of 

 the Rio Grande below Laredo, Texas. 



In Mexico it is a common bird in the States of 

 Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon. Closely allied 

 forms are found farther south, two of these 

 within the limits of Mexico. The natives call it 

 pajaro verde — green bird. 



Mr. Ludlow Griscom, who has had personal 

 experiences with green jays, has written me as 

 follows : 



"The green jay prefers a relatively dry climate 

 and is most abundant in thick patches of scrub or 

 in dry open gallery forest where there is consid- 

 erable bushy undergrowth. It is rare or absent 

 in Mexico in the humid rain forests near the 

 coast. In southern Texas it is particularly fond 

 of the dense patches of evergreen scrub which 

 line the resacas, depressions filled with standing 

 water in the prairie which formerly served as 

 one of the mouths of the Rio Grande. 



"In spite of living in such dense and impene- 

 trable tangles, the green jay is not a difficult bird 

 to observe, because its habits are characteristic 

 of practically all jays throughout the world. It 

 is bold, impertinent, and full of curiosity, and is 

 highly social or gregarious, except for the breed- 

 ing season. The bird goes about, consequently, 

 in small flocks of eight to fifteen individuals, and 

 the approach of their haunts by man is almost 

 certain to bring them out in the open to look 

 at him. 



"They have a great variety of harsh screaming 

 notes, varied with a medley of caws, toots, and 

 whistles, and for a few minutes noisily hover 

 about the intruder from a discreet distance and 

 then melt silently away into the bush and are sel- 

 dom seen again unless deliberately followed up. 

 Farther south they wander through the more 

 open forests, and in Yucatan I would suddenly 

 find myself surrounded by a screaming flock 

 where a moment before the forest had seemed 

 quite silent and empty, and after satisfying their 

 curiosity they would disappear as mysteriously as 

 they had arrived. 



"In spite of its gorgeous coloring, the green 

 jay is surprisingly inconspicuous in its haunts. 

 The green upper parts are not easily seen against 

 the background of the forest, and the golden 

 yellow merges surprisingly well with the dapple- 

 yellow light of the more open glades." 



ARIZONA JAY (Aphelocoma sieberi ari- 

 zonae) 



Early in November, 1913, ascending the Santa 

 Catalina Mountains north of Tucson, Arizona, 

 my guide kept me in the saddle all day long ex- 

 cept for a brief rest at noon. We had crossed 

 many miles of arid plains with cacti on every 

 hand. Then we had climbed upward until late in 

 the afternoon, when by a little rill we prepared 

 to spend the night. 



A headache, induced by the long ride in a beat- 

 ing, bright sunlight, caused me to spread my 

 sleeping bag in the shade of one of the scrub 

 oaks which dotted the ridges. The guide un- 

 saddled the horses and took them to a distant 

 grazing ground, while Hlay with eyes closed, 

 hoping for the pain to pass. I had not been rest- 

 ing long when a jarring, querulous note sounded 

 from the limbs above, and there, only a few yards 

 distant, was a pair of Arizona jays. Three others 

 quickly appeared, and for some time they engaged 

 in a critical examination of our duffel and of 

 the recumbent form under the scrub-oak tree. 



The next day I saw others ; so, evidently, they 

 were common in the oak belt. After entering 

 the pine woods covering the upper regions of the 

 mountains, no more of them were seen. 



It was in December, 1873, that Robert Ridg- 

 way, writing in the Bulletin of the Essex Insti- 

 tute, described this bird from specimens taken 

 in Pima County, Arizona. Its eggs were not dis- 

 covered by a naturalist until 1876. It is one of 

 the various western jays having a clearly marked 

 and extensive range. Since Ridgway's publica- 

 tion concerning it the bird has been found by 

 students in various regions. Its breeding range 

 is believed now to cover the upper Austral Zone 

 of southern Arizona, southern New Mexico, and 

 parts of the neighboring Mexican States of Chi- 

 huahua and Sonora. 



The nest of this jay is made usually in scrub 

 oaks, at a height of from 10 to 15 feet from 

 the ground. It is a rather untidy, loosely con- 

 structed affair of twigs and rootlets. When 

 horsehair can be found, this also is employed. As 

 a rule, the eggs are four or five in number, al- 

 though six, or even seven, have been found in 

 some nests. They are light greenish blue and 

 are the only jay eggs in America which are not 

 decorated with dots or spots. 



Major Charles Bendire, writing of these jays 

 in Arizona sixty years ago, said that he often saw 

 them in spring along a near-by creek, "evidently 

 on a raid, after eggs and the young of smaller 

 birds, which breed in abundance here." 



The food of the Arizona jay consists of insects 

 of various kinds as well as of acorns, wild fruit, 

 and a wide variety of seeds and nuts. They bury 

 many acorns which later grow into trees. 



COUCH'S JAY (A. s. couchi). This form 

 of the Arizona jay occurs in the "Chisos Moun- 

 tains, central-western Texas, to southern Nuevo 

 Leon and northern Coahuila," 



